Stolen: review

96 min

USA, 2012

Stolen: review

It’s usually safe to assume Nicolas Cage, that howling hambone of an action idol, will deliver the most unhinged performance in whatever vehicle he’s headlining. Not so with his latest, the proudly preposterous Stolen. Here, overacting honours go to Josh Lucas, as a vengeful, one-legged cabbie prone to bellowing insane bons mots like ‘I was a golden boy, doll face – now I’m a freaking Picasso!’

Seeming catatonic by comparison, Cage plays his former partner in crime, a paroled master thief whose teenage daughter (Sami Gayle) the maniac holds hostage. Director Simon West, who also made this summer’s Expendables sequel, stages not one but two daringly elaborate heist sequences. That said, only the most lenient of junk-cinema junkies won’t feel as though their own pockets have been picked.